On the evening of February 7th, Alibaba Holdings Group announced its performance for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. In this quarter, the local lifestyle group continued to maintain steady and strong growth: driven by the healthy growth of Ele.me and the high-speed growth of Gaode, the local lifestyle group's orders increased by more than 20% year-on-year, and the annual active consumers continued to grow month on month, exceeding 390 million. The annual consumption frequency of users also showed strong growth compared to the same period.
This quarter's financial report shows that against the backdrop of continuous improvement in business scale and operating efficiency, Ele.me's losses have continued to narrow significantly year-on-year, driving the adjusted EBITA (operating profit and loss) of the local lifestyle group to accelerate to 2.068 billion yuan. Compared to the same period last year, the loss continued to narrow by 30% from 2.923 billion yuan, exceeding market expectations.
Behind the "stable and fast" financial report figures, repeated marketing activities that have broken the circle, increased real-time e-commerce strategies, and continuous investment in the ecosystem have driven Ele.me to continue achieving another quarter of business efficiency improvement.
Launch rich marketing activities
Stimulate consumer demand with fun and affordability
During the period from October to December 2023, Ele.me launched a series of popular marketing and promotional activities against the backdrop of increasing demand for winter takeout: fun interactions combined with real discounts, which triggered active consumer participation and further promoted strong growth in catering and retail orders.
In late October, Ele.me launched the 2023 Ele.me Double 11 with 110000 units of "good goods, one point purchase", and simultaneously launched ten major category discount days for paper products, grain and oil, mother and baby, milk drinks, snacks, and more. Public reports show that the number of merchants participating in the "Double 11" platform promotion increased by 50% year-on-year. On the day of "Double 11", more than ten categories such as alcohol, 3C digital, clothing, shoes, bags, and household appliances doubled in transactions, and more than 90% of cooperative brands broke historical peaks in transaction volume, bringing about an overall peak growth in retail orders for Ele.me.
Following the Double 11 shopping festival, Ele.me announced the upgrade of its popular promotion "Friday 50% off" rights. As a platform activity that has been launched for half a year and is highly welcomed by consumers and businesses, Ele.me has not only upgraded its gameplay, but also piloted in six cities: Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Changsha, Wenzhou, and Wuhan. It has upgraded "Friday 50% off" to "Weekend 50% off", allowing consumers to enjoy the same rights of 50% off red envelopes and 50% off good goods every weekend, and also driving more businesses to create peak traffic throughout the week.
At the end of 2023, Ele.me teamed up with more than 10 chain brands including Diandian, Burger King, and Honey Snow City to launch a new round of free orders. They upgraded their signature summer event "Guess the Answer Free" to an interactive game "Jump to Win Free". With strong interactivity and the attraction of free orders, the cumulative number of participants exceeded 25 million in just one month of online, and the daily distribution of free orders exceeded 300000.
Release real-time e-commerce strategy
Continuously optimizing platform retail supply and merchant service ecosystem
In November 2023, the Ele.me Instant E-commerce Brand Merchant Conference was held in Shanghai. At the meeting, Ele.me officially announced that real-time e-commerce is a key strategic direction for the platform. Facing this new track, Ele.me will firmly, long-term, and continuous investment, with the goal of "advancing with the ecosystem", and growing together with brand and retail partners.
Public data shows that Ele.me has now collaborated deeply with nearly 500 brands, successfully helping brands achieve a monthly transaction volume of over 100 million yuan and jointly creating more than 1 billion yuan worth of products with the brand. At the real-time e-commerce brand merchant conference, Ele.me also announced the launch of the "Double Hundred Plan": to work with 100 retail brands and achieve 100% growth in two years.
While helping brand merchants continuously improve the efficiency of real-time e-commerce operations, Ele.me is also continuously optimizing the platform's supply richness and operational capabilities, helping merchants grow rapidly in new tracks.
For example, in November last year, Ele.me teamed up with chain stir fry brands such as Grain Emperor, Xue Ji, and Qi Wang Peanuts to launch the "Sunshine Chestnut" project. By standardizing the quality, delivery, and after-sales service of chestnut takeout, specific pain points in consumer demand for stir fry were solved, driving healthier business growth for businesses.
During the high incidence season of influenza in winter, Ele.me has launched pilot "online medication and medical insurance payment" and "home testing for common respiratory viruses" services in many places, providing new convenience for consumers to provide home medical services. Taking Shanghai as an example, since the pilot launch of the medical insurance payment project, more than 700 online chain pharmacies have been connected, achieving full coverage in the urban area.
At present, as we enter the new year and preparation period, Ele.me has also teamed up with many brands such as Pepsi, All Cotton Era, and Unilever to launch new year products, Dragon Year gift boxes, and other special New Year products. Through projects such as "Fun Paizi", we promote cross-border cooperation between catering and retail brands, bringing consumers new combinations and experiences of catering and retail integration.
Enhance the protection and care for riders
Motivating riders to become "community heroes"
During the quarter, as various regions gradually enter winter and face severe weather conditions such as rain, snow, and strong winds, Ele.me has launched a series of measures to provide warm winter protection for the Blue Knight group, including providing them with the opportunity to eat when hungry, rest when tired, travel with security, and medical examinations more convenient.
Across the country, Ele.me has prepared over a million pieces of windproof knee pads, plush necklaces, thickened handlebar gloves and other thermal insulation equipment for the rider community, making it convenient for warm and safe travel in winter. In addition, Ele.me has teamed up with Putuo District in Shanghai to launch the country's first food delivery rider star rated apartment, with a comfortable environment and complete facilities, allowing riders to move in with their bags.
In December 2023, Ele.me held the 6th Blue Knight Festival. At this Blue Knight Festival, Ele.me announced the launch of the industry's first public welfare incentive system for riders, investing millions of yuan annually to incentivize "community knights", so that the public welfare behavior of Blue Knights can be seen, recorded, and rewarded.
As the Spring Festival approaches, instant e-commerce and takeout have become a new trend in consumption. Ele.me recently announced an investment of 1 billion yuan to increase the Blue Knight reward and launched four major measures, namely "three increases and one subsidy", to better serve urban life and community needs, and to provide income security and reward incentives for riders.